2010: Sold Out.

I have a contact list that you can sign up for if you would like for me to notify you in early 2011 of when I will begin taking orders. The colonies will be ready during the month of May.

The price for honeybee colony starts for 2011 is still to be determined. You get 5 medium frames (6 1/4" frames) with comb, brood, honey, bees, and a queen. The first splits will be available in May. Its possible some will be ready in April.

You will need a medium box to get the split started in. I may have some medium boxes available to sell splits in, but no tops and bottoms or other equipment is for sale.

This is a fully functioning mini-colony on frames of drawn comb that we can place into your equipment that you bring. Alternatively, I have waxed cardboard nuc boxes available for $10 to transport your split in. I usually look for, and mark, the queen when transferring the split into your equipment and am happy to spend time with beginners giving a brief tour of a honey bee colony and provide other information to get you started. If you would rather have the split self contained and ready to go when you arrive, please let me know. All beekeepers inspecting colonies at pickup must wear a veil. Most of my colonies are very gentle, but stings do happen in beekeeping when not wearing protective clothing.

These splits are pickup only. I do not ship. A few deeps may be available in 2011. Deposits are not necessary, but missing the pick-up date we agree on will result in the split going to the next available beekeeper. Splits can only stay in their small nuc box for a short period of time and must go before they get too crowded. All colonies will be legally sold with the required state inspection paperwork provided at pickup, ensuring you that these colonies are free of regulated bee diseases.

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Honey beekeeping has become a very difficult activity  in the USA in recent years. Ever since parasitic mites where introduced into this country, beekeepers have faced ever increasing challenges keeping hives alive due to other new and old diseases and stressful environmental conditions outside the hive. Adding a cornucopia of other problems on top of the parasitic, varroa mite situation has led to the end of many beekeeping businesses.

To deal with varroa mites, pesticides have been used extensively within bee colonies to kill mites and prevent colony losses. This of course led to other problems that can be briefly described with the words "chemical treadmill" and "comb contamination". My beekeeping practices emphasize non-chemical controls for varroa mites while sustaining a healthy population of bees. The most important strategy I have recently begun using to reduce varroa mites in my colonies is to introduce genetics into my bees from the USDA, Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) line of bees. This requires me to raise my own queens from daughters of instrumentally inseminated breeder queens since the availability of this bee is still limited. Secondly, I use some cultural controls including drone comb trapping, screened bottom boards, and culling old comb to reduce mite related problems without chemicals. Lastly, I am currently using Apiguard (a thymol based gel) to reduce mite numbers in late summer, after any honey for human consumption has been removed. As I continue to introduce resistant stocks from the VSH line, the use of Apiguard will hopefully no longer be necessary. However, due to the importance of keeping varroa mite levels very low, I am currently using this product. There are no comb contamination issues with Apiguard. In fact, thymol (the active ingredient) is used in the food industry as an additive and in skin care products such as baby diaper rash cream. I have had good success in controlling mites with thymol products since 2005.